Baracking Hillary

Earlier today, I did an on-line supervision with one of my post-graduate students, in Kazakhstan. What an amazing world we now live in — that it is possible to interact between a remote part of Brazil and an equally remote part of Central Asia. The student’s mini-thesis is on the political marketing of the Democratic hopefuls in the current US primaries, which has inevitably set me thinking more about the relative merits and demerits of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As an academic and a journalist, I have to remain studiously neutral. Besides, not being an American, I can’t have a direct say anyway. But as a politician I warm to Barack Obama, whereas there is something about Hillary that sets my teeth on edge. I know from responses to earlier posts of mine that I am not alone in this. But can anyone explain to me what it is about her that provokes such a negative reaction? In my case at least, it’s certainly not the fact that she is a woman; in principle, I think it is a great advance that a woman could become President of the United States. It isn’t even that she was (so far as I am concerned) wrong about Iraq. So what on earth is it? I imagine her campaign team might like to know the answer too!